2 weeks of Surf and Snowboard confirmed

Mexico
I bought my plane tickets this morning. Im leaving next friday march 2nd to meetup with Mc on a red-eye to Mazatlan Mexico where I'll base my Mexico stay @ my good mate McCrory's home. The sad part about this is that he'll be here in Quebec, very bad timing indeed but this just happened too fast, got my vacation approval only 2 days ago.

Vancouver
Then 11 days later, I'll be flying out of Mazatlan to Vancouver BC to visit Sabou & the little familly and catch 3 Canucks home game. If I'm real lucky he'll be between pipes for one of those. I'll be carying my Snowboard gear to get 2 days of powder in the Whistler area with my friend Dede. Helidrop plans are in the air :)

I should be back home in Montreal on the 18th if I don't decide to just live the life and travel the world. Cheers ya'll!

"Your work is to discover your world and then

with all of your heart give yourself to it."

- Buddha

W #1

February 19 was huge. Listening to the Canucks hockey game on my laptop in my living room while finishing stuff for work. 38 Saves on 40 shots against none other than the best team in the NHL at the moment, Sabby met expectations tonight with his first NHL win, fuck yeah Sabouuuuuuuuuuuuuu my man!!

"The popular guy they call Sabby waited 11 games for another crack and Tuesday night in Anaheim the Canucks players in front of him busted their humps to help the Roberto Luongo stand-in earn his first ever NHL victory with a 3-2 overtime win over the Ducks."

Célébration

Samedi le 27 Janvier fut une soiree belle petite soirée. On célèbrait le départ de notre ami Biggy pour ca nouvelle terre d'acceuil la Gaspésie en banlieu de Montréal, c'est pas loin Big c'est juste a côté, ainsi que le 25ieme anniversaire de naissance de mademoiselle Cathou!

Tout ce beau monde se donnait rendez-vous Resto Dans La Bouche ou nous attendions Cath avec un "SURPRISE". Specialités du resto sont les tapas, a ce que je puisse me rapeller les escargots sur champignons et le brie fondant a l'orange et bleuet étaient phenomenals. Le tout fut un souper bien amusant et bien arrosé, faut dire que le nectare des dieux est a moitié prix avant 9 hrs dans ce lieu bucal, alors 2 bouteilles de Liberty School plutot qu'une furent de mises.

Après un festival de photos et une aventure de taxi entremêlé de cris genre "Ma te skinner la raie sti" le tout c'est poursuivi sur la rue Laurier au Bar Baldwin. Ouch les "ptites bouteilles" comme on les apelles poursuivirent le travail ammorcé par el vino tinto. Après avoir renversé plusieurs verres, taché plusieurs pantalons et tombé par terre, nos joyeux aventuriers decidèrent d'aller de l'avant et terminer la soirée dans ma demeure.

Aille Yaille Yaille, les boutch d'en bas en ont eu a coeur joie. Merci a Marie-Andree et Kevin de s'être soucier du bonheur des dites voisines mais ma réponse ressemblait a "Faites plus de bruit, Charrues!". Alors tournoi de babyfoot et royal rumble justqu'a 6hrs du mat alors que la buveries c'est poursuivie(en fait je m'en rapelle plus trop mais sur les photos ...).


Pour conclure sur le départ d'Etienne, il quittait aujourd'hui pour la Gaspesie et hier nous sommes allés avec morin et gagnon voir la partie du canadien au centre bell contre M.Crosby. Le tout c'est poursuivi a la cage au sport pour écouter le SuperBowl et boire l'alcool gratuit gagné par le frère d'Etienne. Belle petite journée, on lui souhaite bonne chance a Gaspé. En passant, si vous trouvez une caméra digitale sur la rue, apellez Etienne il a égaré la sienne hier avec les 200 photos de la journée ;)

How to make it to the big game?

"First she held an auction to see if she could be someones date to the game. Then Axe body spray gave her 4 tickets. She's bringing two of her girlfriends, and she has one extra. To give away to a lucky dude! So basically you get a free Super Bowl ticket and you have three dates to go with."

This story is just hilarious and that girl is a hottie so I thought it was worth the read. Why not give it a shot boys @ myspace.com/superbowldate. Go Bears! Manning is going to choke!

link to the story

Terje's First Descent

This is a name I hadn't seen or heard in a little while. Mr. Haakonsen AKA Mr. Snowboard himself shows here why he's been the best snowboarder in the world for such a long time. Let's put it this way, NO FEAR! I can almost feel the adrenaline just looking at him lunch up there. Check it out in bigger version

"For almost seven years now, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more."

Stop looking for Pandora's box, it's right here. Pretty cool, enter an artist or a song and it will play music that have related characteristics, great way to discover music!

Soul Flyers (SkyDiving gone very, very extreme)

Is it a plane? Is it a bird? No it's superman! I saw this video on a promo dvd from salomon a few years ago and its just unbelievable how much adrenaline this dude must get when he flies by the 2 skiers! He almost touches the ground. That's playing with your life and I love it.

2nd Star

Great game for M. Sabourin in Buffalo yesterday. He showed everyone he could pull it off with the big boys. The first W will have to wait till he plays Colombus @ the end of the month. There are great comments on his performance on the canucks website. You can also check the highlights here, the save against Briere in the shootout is unreal.

Tip Tom went to Bufallo to watch the game and he called me with Derek Roy's girlfriend(Pretty hot he said) cell so I could hear the shootout live, I so wanted to be there but I had a great night @ rouge to compensate. Good job Sabou.

35 Sabourin in town for a few days

This week the Canucks were in Montreal to play the Habs on Tuesday. What was really sharp about it was that they play in town once every 3 years and they happened to have 2 days off here, so it gave me a chance to catch up with my man Sabou and Tip Tom who I hadn't seen in a while.

Saturday they played in T. and won an easy game. Then they flew in Montreal and Burrows had booked the vip lounge @ Times supperclub where a few bottle of Grey Goosse where waiting for us. I was surprised to see the whole team coming along and partying. It had been a while since I had been to Times and again I wasn't disappointed. It was a good and wild night and I'll spare you the juicy details since Im sure nobody's interested in those. Wish I had took my camera along for a few souvenirs.
My hungover wake-up call on Sunday was from Dan to tell me practice was at 12 so I showed up @ Bell Center to watch that, then I took him to Shwartz. I went to every other practice so I guess I deserve the title of Vancouver fan #1. On Monday, Luongo got hit in the throat by a wrist shot from one of he Sedin's. I usually don't wish bad luck to anyone, but I was pretty content and excited after that. Especially when we were eating at Shed cafe that night and the coach of the goalies called Sabou to tell him not to drink too much beers(he had already ordered a glass of water), that he'd probably get the start against the Habs since Luongo had to sleep in the hospital.

Let's say that seeing Luongo between pipes at the morning skate on Tuesday was a huge disappointment. Sabou's first win in Montreal will have to wait, but he'll get a shot tonight in Buffalo to show everyone what he can do.

Quote of the week: "Heille le gros, tu sais que je me suis pas brosse les dents!"

Thanks to Sabou for the hockey tickets and thanks to Burrows for a new warrior hockey shaft.

iPhone

You can find the keynotes of macworld 2007 with a breathtaking demo of the iPhone and great pictures of MacWorld 2007 on engaget and you can find additional information with the specs of the iPhone on apple's website.
Can't believe the law to own your personal phone number will pass only this fall in Canada, our lawmakers are just retarded. I don't think I'll be able to wait till then to purchase this iPhone greatness, I guess I'll have to give up the JIPP phone number to change to a gsm carrier ....
ohhh looks like the phone will be proprietary to Cingular for a few months, maybe I'll have to get it from Hong Hong. I guess you all wished you bought Apple stocks this morning and shorted RIM the canadian makers of the obsolete blackberry.

Nostradamus is in the house

Au mois d'Aout 2004, alors qu'il etait sous contrat avec les flames de Calgary, nous avions déniché un superbe costume vintage des Canucks a notre grand BouBou pour ensuite aller lui rendre un aspect un peu + approprié pour l'événement. Je suis certain qu'il garde des souvenirs memorables de ce roccambolesque stag party pour les moins biscornues. Maintenant 2 années plus tard il se retrouve pour l'équipe dont il portait l'uniforme lorque nous l'avions d'éplumé. Que de bons souvenirs Sabou .... a venir un post sur comment preparer un bon bachelor party.

Mac Os X shortcuts

This should be nothing new but its a good reminder when often switching operating system interfaces.

Finder window

• "Command-W" = Close Window
  
• "Option-Command-W" = Close all Windows
  
• "Command-Right Arrow" = Expand folder (list view)
  
• "Option-Command-Right Arrow" = Expand folder and nested subfolders (list view)
  
• "Command-Left Arrow" = Collapse Folder (list view)
  
• "Option-Command-Up Arrow" = Open parent folder and close current window
  

Menu Commands

• "Command-H" = Finder Menu Hide Finder
  
• "Option-Command-H" = Finder Menu Hide Others
  
• "Command-N" = File Menu New Finder window
  
• "Shift-Command-N" = File Menu New Folder
  
• "Command-O" = File Menu Open
  
• "Command-S" = File Menu Save
  
• "Shift-Command-S" = File Menu Save as
  
• "Command-P" = File Menu Print
  
• "Command-W" = File Menu Close Window
  
• "Option-Command-W" = File Menu Close all Windows
  
• "Command-I" = File Menu Get Info
  
• "Command-D" = File Menu Duplicate
  
• "Command-R" = File Menu Show original
  
• "Command-T" = File Menu Add to Favorites
  
• "Command-Delete" = File Menu Move to Trash
  
• "Command-E" = File Menu Eject
  
• "Command-F" = File Menu Find
  
• "Command-Z" = Edit Menu Undo
  
• "Command-X" = Edit Menu Cut
  
• "Command-C" = Edit Menu Copy
  
• "Command-V" = Edit Menu Paste
  
• "Command-A" = Edit Menu Select All
  
• "Command-1" = View Menu View as Icons
  
• "Command-2" = View Menu View as List
  
• "Command-3" = View Menu View as Columns
  
• "Command-B" = View Menu Hide Toolbar
  
• "Shift-Command-C" = Go Menu Computer
  
• "Shift-Command-H" = Go Menu Home
  
• "Shift-Command-I" = Go Menu iDisk
  
• "Shift-Command-A" = Go Menu Applications
  
• "Shift-Command-F" = Go Menu Favorites
  
• "Shift-Command-G" = Go Menu Goto Folder
  
• "Command-K" = Go Menu Connect to Server
  
• "Command-M" = Window Menu Minimize Window
  
• "Command-?" = Help Menu Open Mac Help
  
• "Command-Space" = Open Spotlight (Mac OS X 10.4 or later)
  
• "Command-Alt-Space" = Open Spotlight Guide (Mac OS X 10.4 or later)
  
• "F12" = Opens Dashboard (Mac OS X 10.4 or later)
  

Mouse Keys

• Control-click to simulate right-click with pad
  
• "8" = Move Up
  
• "2" = Move Down
  
• "4" = Move Left
  
• "6" = Move Right
  
• "1, 3, 7, 9" = Move Diagonally
  
• "5" = Press Mouse Button
  
• "0" = Hold Mouse Button
  
• ". (period on keypad)" = Release Mouse Button (use after pressing 0)

Text

• "Control-Command-D" = Word definition in a cocoa application
  
• "Option←" = move 1 word right
• "Option→" = move 1 word left
  
• "Command←" = move to beginning of line
• "Command→" = move to end of line
• "Control-A" = move to beginning of paragraph
• "Control-K" = delete text to the end of paragraph
  
• "Control-N" = move to next line
  
• "Control-O" = insert new line
  
• "Control-T" = transpose character
  
• "Option-Delete" = delete word to the left
  

Terminal

• "Control-A" = move to beginning of line
• "Control-B/F" = move back/forward one character
  
• "Control-E" = move to the end of line
• "Control-T" = transpose char
  
• "Control-U" = Erase line
  
• "Control-W" = Erase previous word
• "Escape-F/B" = move one word forward/backward
• "Escape-D" = Erase next word

Other Commands

• "Option-Command-D" = Show/Hide Dock
  
• "Command-Tab" = Switch application
  
• "Command-Up Arrow" = Move up one directory
  
• "Command-Down Arrow" = Move down one directory
  
• "Page Up or Control-Up Arrow" = Move up one page
  
• "Page Down or Control-Down Arrow" = Move down one page
  
• "Option-Drag" = Copy to new location
  
• "Command-Drag" = Move to new location without copying
  
• "Command-C" = Show Colors palette in application
  
• "Command-T" = Show Font palette in application
  
• "Command-Shift-3" = Take a picture of the screen
  
• "Command-Shift-4" = Take a picture of the selection
  
• "Command-Shift-4, then press Control while selecting" = Take a picture of the screen, place in Clipboard
  
• "Command-Shift-4, then Spacebar" = Take a picture of the selected window
• "Command -Q" = Quit Application
  
• "Option-Command-esc" = Force Quit
  
• "Control-Eject" = Restart, Sleep, Shutdown dialog box
  
• "Control-Command-Eject" = Quit all applications and restart
  
• "Option-Command-Eject or Option-Command-Power" = Sleep
  
• "Command-`" = Cycle through windows in application or Finder (if more than one window is open)
  
• "Function-Delete (PowerBook, iBook only)" = Forward Delete (delete the character to the right of your cursor)

References:
docs.info.apple.com
keyboard_shortcuts_in_os_x
rixstep

MAA 125th anniversary

"Founded in 1881, as the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (M.A.A.A.), through the union of three prominent sporting clubs of the era, Club Sportif MAA continues on the tradition of promoting excellence in athletics."

There was a huge happening Thursday November 16Th to celebrate the anniversary of my second home. It was an amazing evening with performances from le Cirque du Soleil and a few other highlights. It was a huge event and surprisingly casual atmosphere, all you can drink on top of that.

I call it my second home since I shower and shave more often at MAA than at home. Seriously that club is just great because it's not just a place were you go to workout and see some of the best squash players in Quebec, but its a place where you stick around to have a beer watching a hockey game with buddies, after a squash match and a good sweat in the steam room. That's also where I store my bike in the morning before I go to work or where I get a massage after a stressfull day.

An interesting fact is that the first Stanley cup was won by the the MAA hockey team. You can find a little more on its history on the MAA's website.
Main Page
History

-- Strenghten your mind --

Today before I saw that movie I was talking with a kite and windsurf fanatic and I decided I've talked enough about it now its decided I will purchase a kite. Its going to be sick!

Halloween

Tetes a claques: Halloween


Sont trop hot. vous pouvez en voir plus sur leur site web a www.tetesaclaques.tv

Mac Enstein ...

Is certainly doing a good job promoting the apple brand with its Mac Chick of the Month. Thought id share it here. We never know it might convince someone to switch to the real deal. Take a look at the website.

Oracle 10G: Build J2EE Aplications Ed 1.1 Certificate

In February of last year I was facing a thought decision. I was given the choice to go and take a 1 week formation in Toronto or California? Doh?

I chose the later and had an amazing stay at Sofitel in Redwood Shore for 8 days with a car rental. My classes were located 5 minutes from the hotel and were just beside my employer's headquarters. Had a chance to meet and lunch with people I only new by e-mail, putting a face on them was pretty cool.

You can have a look at a few pictures of that trip!

So I did all the tourists stuff on the first week-end, biked around San Francisco, went on the Golden Gate bridge and then rode in Sausalito which was really a nice place to visit. I met a couple there that were biking and they showed me around. Visited Alcatraz, Chinatown, Russian Hill, Twin Peaks, Market street, fisherman's WARF, ...
During the week, after class I would go for a run at the beach in half Moon Bay, the surfing spot is best known as Maverick one of the best big waves on the west coast. Too bad I didn't get the chance to grab a board and be destroyed by one of those waves. I was convinced by one of my coworkers to go and see 2 plays; a drama entitled Mortality and Morbidity and a musical on Sinatra, being in California I guess I had to attend at least one show right! I had the chance to enjoy some of the Bay Area fine cuisine and here is a small list:

• Cliff House San Francisco
  
• Crab House @ Pier 39 San Francisco
• Tamarine @ Palo Alto
  
• BAY 223 @ Redwood City
  
• Calzone on Colombus Ave @ SF
  

Cliff House and Crab House were very good but a little overpriced ... when your expensing ... Tamarine was by far the best one and I had a great evening over there with people I met from Stanford.

On Thursday night I went to have a look at Mark Farina's residence the Ruby Skye which almost made me feel like I was back to Ibiza.

On Wednesday 1 meter of snow fell in the mountains and I have always dreamt to Ride Lake Tahoe so that was were I was heading for a 4 hour drive to Heavenly on Saturday. One of the best Snowboard days of my life, my legs must still hurt from all that powder!! Next time I have to try Kirkwood or Mammoth.

Road Trip through Eastern Europe

Lets make a long story short ....

If you prefer pictures to this long short story click on this hyperlink

On August 10th, a terrorist attempt was dismantled at London Airport. Dammit, that had to happen the day I left for France. Going through customs was a nightmare, Air Transat sent people in karts to get us through customs and in the plane. How lucky was I to have a direct flight, else I would of never gotten in Nice on the next morning. I finally got there in time, Max and Franky waiting for me at the airport with the "GrosTorseMobile" a Poegot 205 17 years of age ready for a great journey through Eastern Europe.

We drove all the way across Italy with a first stop in Verona, the city of Romeo & Juliet for a great snack ended with a good gelato. Then we took the road again for a well-deserved sleep in Venezia. We had a little bonus with an outdoors show from Roger Waters, singer of Pink Floyd on la Plaza San Marco were we took our first Jack of the trip.


We just had time to grab a espresso and hop we were gone again direction Zadar Croatia for a little halt before we would go to Pag Island for a few days. When we got to Novalja, all hotels were booked so we had to knock at some local’s door to find a place to stay and we found a cozy place with and old mama that took good care of us. There is a little beach on Pag called Zrce just beside Novalja which is trying to label itself as the next Ibiza (not quite) but still it runs 24 hrs, there are Jacuzzis and pools in the clubs ... We didn't rest much during that stay especially when we lost both car keys in a rain storm at 6 in the morning after a long night and I had left the key of our room in the car. Luckily after 15 minutes in the rain trying to open the window and after being soaked and wet, Max finally found the key in his chest where you basically can find anything since it is humongous, there was probably even a peace of Pag cheese hidden in there. On our last day on Pag we took a boat ride to the islands to end up on Rab where we rented a scooter to visit the island.

Again we hoped in the car direction Plitvice National park for a quick one-day visit. The setup was magnificent with waterfalls and lakes everywhere. The park was the strategic location where Serbs and Croatians first started to fight in the Croatian War Of Independence in the 90's. Then we headed up North to Hungary because we had to be in Budapest on Friday to meet friends. We stopped at lake Balaton for a night in a small town called Keszthely were we had a great night at a local pub on the beach trying to talk a mixture of German and English to communicate with the locals.

So here we go again to Budapest and meet TBo and the Danish with his 10 or so other friends at a 4* Hotel downtown on the Pest side of the city. Nice! Big weekend, with some well deserved relaxation in Budapest thermal bath's finest! After that it was time to think going back in Antibes France for good French food. On the way back, we stopped for 2 nights in Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia. There was something special about that place. The city and the women were so nice, people were friendly and the atmosphere was so chill. I would definitely rate it as one of the finest city I have had a chance to visit. So that was about 3500 K's without a single problem with the ride, except maybe closing the hood, not bad for an some car so close to retirement.

Pictures
Alex has all the pictures from Budapest Here

Intro

This blog will be a mixture of facts & events related to jipp's Inc do's and don't. Absurdity should be a must. A minimal percentage of the blog might also be reserved to serious issues like finance, software, science and whatever the jipp in question might be interested in.